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Comment by jvanderbot | Hacker News Reader

Nothing is ever that urgent. If they insist on immediate purchase, I invariably walk.

My policy is before any time sensitive decision is to determine if it is manufactured time sensitivity, that is the company created the time sensitivity. I refuse to act on things that are only time sensitive because someone else decided it should be. Those are traps.

> Nothing is ever that urgent

It took me decades to learn this. I mean, to really learn it.

Barring emergencies (like blood squirting out of puncture wound, or part of your house is on fire):

NOTHING is ever urgent.

You set the pace of your life. You speak when you are ready. You act when you are ready. Take as much time as you need to think.

We would only put up our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve when I was growing up, and it was ever so stressful watching my father haggle on the tree lot.

My dad: "It's worth nothing to you tomorrow."

Tree guy: "You're not gonna have Christmas?"

Tree guy, you can have Christmas without a tree. I hate Christmas trees. They take up space I don't (didn't; I have more space now) have, and spread needles everywhere. And I'm Christian, so I'm not that big on the pagan symbols anyway.

That is an excellent example. Who really has the upper hand? Depends on how close the competition is, I guess. And how close the competition is to their competitors..

"No, I will buy a plastic tree for the same price and never buy from you again."

This is why I've done my damnedest to avoid jobs that require additional on-call time. It invites abuse where everything has to be a crisis. I worked in e-commerce ONCE. Grandma can't buy shoes at 2am because part of the site isn't working? This is not an urgent situation.

Unless it's the Joint Chiefs calling me up from the war room to stop a meteor from destroying the planet, I'd rather go back to sleep. Even then I still might: they can fire me in the morning if there is one.

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